1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus and methods for interactively defining and examining complex system functions. More particularly, the present invention is a computer resident tool which interacts with a user who is allowed to enter and validate data about a system, and then manipulate and present it in formats useful to the user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The final users, or purchasers, of a system usually do not care very much about the internal construction of the system, but rather want particular external functions in response to information or commands entered by the users. Today there are no tools or methods that allow description of the functions of a system from the external point of view. All tools that attempt this fall into the trap of describing the internal workings of the system, and hope that the user infers the system's external functioning. The result is that, especially in relation to computer-based systems, users or owners of systems approve specifications that they do not understand, leading to the construction of systems that do not satisfy their requirements.
The main problem which has not been solved is recording, management and, particularly, presentation of the functional rules which control the system. Such functional rules are very numerous in typical systems, and the user must be able to analyze and understand the rules and how they relate to the outside world. A tool for defining the external functions of a system is necessary for understanding existing systems before modifying them, and for specifying the function of new systems.
The present invention solves the problem of understanding and specifying systems according to their external functions by structuring the functions in terms of transactions between the system and a potential system user, functional rules, and information entities which register information about the outside world in the system. It also validates the entered data and presents it in formats useful to the user.